82  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED  IN  THE 

STUDY  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA?* 


Those  of  you  who  at  dawn  have  rocked  on  the  restless 
deep  know  that  when  the  great  sun  lifts  himself  upon  the 
horizon  a  breeze  always  springs  up  and  with  the  new  light  a 
new  breath  from  heaven  walks  upon  the  face  of  the  waters. 
So  in  North  Carolina  as  the  doors  swing  wide  open  to  the 
coming  Twentieth  Century,  we  feel  that  a  new  spirit  is  mov- 
ing upon  the  face  of  the  land.  A  new  epoch  is  at  hand.  Uni- 
versal education  must  soon  come  and  with  it  will  come  the  un- 
told development  of  our  resources  and  of  the  energies  of  our 
people.  We  feel  that  farther  west  than  the  fabled  island 
of  Atlantis,  this  land  of  North  Carolina  is  rising  into  the 
sunlight  of  a  grander  and  a  more  perfect  day. 

To  no  other  agency  is  so  much  credit  due  for  this  great 
movement  as  to  this  Association.  Though  I  believe  this  is 
only  the  eighteenth  annual  meeting  of  your  body,  you  have 
in  these  seventeen  years  completely  revolutionized  public 
sentiment  in  this  State  upon  the  subject  of  public  schools. 
The  beautiful  words  of  Barry  Yelverton,  Lord  Avonmore,  on 
another  subject,  can  with  justice  be  applied  to  you  in  connec- 
tion with  the  public  school  system  of  this  State:  "You 
found  it  a  skeleton  and  you  have  clothed  it  with  life,  color 
and  complexion ;  you  have  embraced  the  cold  statue  and  at 
your  touch  it  has  grown  into  youth,  beauty  and  vigor."  In- 
stead of  being  barely  tolerated,  our  public  schools  are  now 
deemed  of  the  first  necessity  .and  no  public  man  and  no  re- 
spectable section  of  society  dare  oppose  them.  They  are  be- 
coming our  pride  and  the  only  real  question  is  so  to  readjust 
taxation  that  a  sum  adequate  to  their  just  and  proper  sup- 
port shall  be  laid  upon  those  best  able  to  bear  it. 

*Address  by  Judge  Walter  Clark,  President  of  N.  C.  Literary  and  Historical  Society, 
before  the  Teachers'  Assembly,  Wrightsville,  N.  C,  12  June,  1901. 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED  ?  83 

You  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  $200,000  appro- 
priated from  the  general  fund,  which  is  due  to  your  efforts. 
Though  inadequate,  it  is  an  installment  upon  the  pledges 
made  for  the  education  of  the  children.  It  is  also  significant 
of  the  growth  in  public  sentiment  that  every  election  this 
spring  upon  the  subject  of  graded  schools  has  been  favorable 
and  indeed  in  some  places  unanimous. 

The  ISTorth  Carolina  Literary  and  Historical  Association, 
though  organized  only  last  fall,  has  been,  I  am  proud  to  say, 
as  I  have  the  honor  to  be  its  president,  of  some  assistance 
to  you  in  this  great  work.  It  was  in  one  of  our  meetings 
that  the  plan  of  public  school  libraries  was  formulated. 
The  draft  of  the  bill  as  originally  suggested  by  Professor 
Grimsley  was  with  some  amendments  adopted  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  having  been  ably  and  eloquently  championed 
by  Senator  H.  S.  Ward  and  other  progressive  and  public 
spirited  members. 

Though  now  limited  to  six  school  districts  in  each  county 
with  a -library  of  $30  each,  this  is  a  good  beginning.  It  will 
not  be  long  before  the  library  will  be  extended  to  every  school 
district  in  the  State,  and  the  appropriation  for  each  library 
will  be  increased. 

The  subject  you  have  assigned  me,  "How  to  Encourage 
the  Study  of  the  History  of  ISTorth  Carolina,"  struck  me  with 
surprise.  It  is  related  of  the  great  Hannibal  that  a  certain 
philosopher  undertook  to  point  out  to  him  the  defects  in  his 
system  of  strategy,  with  possibly  some  criticism  of  his  lin- 
gering so  long  around  Capua.  The  old  warrior  listened  with 
such  interest  that  some  one  ventured  to  ask  him  afterwards 
what  he  thought  of  the  philosopher.  "Why,"  he  said,  "he 
had  such  cheek  I  was  bound  to  listen  to  see  what  he  would 
say  next."  I  do  not  understand  why  I  have  been  selected  to 
talk  of  war  in  the  presence  of  so  many  Hannibals — if  some 
one  present  who  is  skilled  in  the  Punic  tongue  will  tell  me 


84  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

the  feminine  for  Hannibal — I  will  add  in  the  presence  of  so 
many  Hannibals  and  lady  Hannibals.  I  can  only  account 
for  it  upon  the  popular  superstition,  which  is  entirely  un- 
founded, that  a  lawyer's  cheek  is  equal  to  anything.  It  is  so 
hard  for  a  superstition  to  die  out ! 

The  first  requisite  for  the  encouragement  of  the  study  of 
history  is  a  sufficient  school  term  and  suitable  school  houses 
in  which  it  may  be  taught.  First  "catch  your  rabbit"  pre- 
cedes all  directions  as  to  how  to  cook  him.  With  the  present 
school  term  of  little  over  three  months  there  is  not  much  time 
for  more  than  the  ''three  R's."  All  declamation  and  ora- 
tory in  favor  of  longer  terms,  and  all  pledges  of  '"education 
for  all  the  children,"  are  worse  than  idle  unless  there  is  suffi- 
cient revenue  for  the  support  of  the  schools. 

Your  Association  has  created  and  directed  the  public  sen- 
timent which  is  now  almost  unanimously  in  favor  of  an  effi- 
cient system  of  public  schools.  What  is  needed  now  is  the 
financial  ability  which  shall  draft  and  enact  a  modem  up-to- 
date  system  of  taxation  which  shall  raise  the  necessary  funds 
by  the  readjustment  of  the  burdens  in  accordance  with 
modern  conditions.  It  is  idle  to  talk  about  a  nine  months' 
term  with  the  appropriations  now  available.  More  money 
must  be  had,  and  a  great  deal  more.  It  can  not  be  raised 
by  increasing  the  tax  upon  land  and  merchandise,  the  crude 
mediaeval  system  which  is  still  so  largely  in  vogue  among  us. 
The  farmer's  business  is  not  prosperous.  You  can  not  add 
to  his  burdens.  Nor  can  the  merchant,  who  now  pays  not 
only  a  double  tax  but  a  threefold  or  fourfold  tax,  bear  a 
heavier  burden.  In  the  classic  language  of  the  day,  "the 
proposition  is  up  to  you." 

Your  able  secretary,  who  for  four  years  has  been  the  effi- 
cient superintendent  of  public  schools,  has  in  two  reports 
called  the  attention  of  the  Legislature  to  a  new  source  of  rev- 
enue, hitherto  untouched,  which  he  thought  could  most  easily 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AKOUSED  ?  85 

contribute  to  the  support  of  the  public  schools.  The  rail- 
roads of  this  State  collect  as  North  Carolina's  proportion  of 
their  earnings  annually  over  $16,000,000  of  which  more 
than  $6,000,00  is  net  profit.  Not  one  dollar  of  this  im- 
mense revenue  pays  one  cent  of  tribute  to  God  nor  Csesar. 
As  they  are  owned  almost  entirely  by  nonresidents,  these 
great  net  revenues  are  carried  out  of  the  State,  never  to  re- 
turn, and  thus  to  our  permanent  impoverishment. 

Not  in  a  spirit  of  hostility  to  them  but  in  justice  to  all 
other  taxpayers,  Mr.  Mebane  has  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  many  other  States  were  raising  a  large  share  of  their 
revenue  from  a  tax  on  the  gross  earnings  of  corporations. 
Illinois  lays  a  tax  of  eight  per  cent  upon  the  gross  earnings 
of  the  Illinois  Central,  and  Governor  Odell,  of  New  York, 
has  recommended  that  all  the  revenues  of  that  State  should 
be  derived  from  that  source  alone,  leaving  the  tax  upon  real 
and  personal  property  for  county  purposes.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  a  tax  of  five  per  cent  levied  upon  the  $16,000,- 
000  of  railroad  earnings  in  this  State  would  raise  $800,000 
from  that  source  alone  which  should  be  a  sacred  fund  de- 
voted solely  to  school  purposes.  The  tax  on  the  earnings  of 
other  great  corporations  would  raise  this  additional  revenue 
for  school  purposes  to  more  than  $1,000,000  annually. 
It  would  not  be  seriously  felt  by  the  subjects  of  it,  for  while 
a  tax  of  five  per  cent  on  the  $16,000,000  of  gross  earnings 
is  $800,000  yet  as  the  net  earnings  of  the  railroads  in  North 
Carolina  are  over  $6,000,000  there  would  still  be  left  them 
$5,200,000  net  revenue,  which  is  thirteen  per  cent,  net  in- 
terest upon  the  $40,000,000  on  which  they  are  assessed  as 
the  fair  value  of  all  their  real  and  personal  property  in  this 
State.  It  would  seem  that  they  can  well  afford  to  pay  $800,- 
000  tax  on  gross  earnings  when  after  such  payment  there 
will  still  be  left  them  thirteen  per  cent  net  earnings  upon 
the  actual  value  of  their  property.     Every  dollar  of  this  sum 


86  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

will  be  needed  before  you  can  have  an  adequate  school  fund. 
As  Mr.  Mebane  said,  where  else  can  you  get  it  from  parties 
who  can  so  easily  and  justly  pay  it?  If  there  is  any  better 
source  let  us  find  it.  The  schools  must  be  supported  by  taxa- 
tion. 

In  making  this  recommendation  Mr.  Mebane  was  but 
following  the  examples  set  us  by  so  many  other  States. 
Think  what  $1,000,000  added  to  your  school  fund  annually 
in  North  Carolina  can  do !  What  a  real  impetus  it  would 
give  to  the  cause  of  education ! 

Mr.  Mebane's  recommendation  was  eminently  just,  even 
if  it  had  required  a  constitutional  amendment,  but  as  long 
as  the  franchise  of  the  railroads  was  practically  untaxed  his 
recommendation  was  not  open  to  the  objection  that  "no  in- 
come can  be  taxed  when  the  property  from  which  the  income 
is  derived  is  taxed."  Another  provision  to  which  lobbyists 
favoring  the  exemption  of  the  most  profitable  business  in  the 
State  did  not  call  attention  is  in  the  same  clause  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  requires  "all  real  and  personal  property  to  be 
taxed  according  to  its  true  value  in  money."  This  did  not, 
however,  escape  the  General  Assembly  of  1901,  which  has 
now  provided  (Ch.  7,  Sees.  50  and  43)  that  the  intangible 
property,  the  franchise,  shall  be  assessed  by  taking  the  aggre- 
gate of  the  market  value  of  the  bonds  and  stocks  of  any  rail- 
road as  its  true  value  (which  is  necessarily  so)  and  that  de- 
ducting therefrom  the  valuation  of  its  assessed  tangible  prop- 
erty, the  difference  is  the  value  of  the  franchise.  This  is  as 
simple  and  unanswerable  as  a  proposition  in  Euclid,  and  is 
the  method  recognized  by  courts,  financiers  and  "the  public" 
(as  the  statute  says).  As  the  market  value  of  the  bonds 
and  stocks  of  the  portion  of  the  railroads  lying  in  this  State 
is  known  to  be  considerably  over  $150,000,000  and  the  as- 
sessment of  their  other  property  to  this  time  is  only  $42,- 
000,000,   it  follows  that  over  $108,000,000  is  now  added 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED  ?  87 

from  this  hitherto  untaxed  source,  which,  on  the  ad  valorem 
basis,  provided  in  the  same  statute,  will  add  $720,000  an- 
nual revenue.  The  act  provides  that  it  shall  be  in  force  from 
its  ratification.  If  the  operation  of  the  act  had  been  postr 
poned,  it  would  have  been  an  exemption  of  this  vast  value 
from  taxation  which  the  Legislature  could  not  grant. 

The  same  statute  applies  to  other  corporations  and  thus 
the  franchise  tax  will  appropriate  $800,000,  the  very  sum 
which  Mr.  Mebane  proposed  to  raise  by  his  tax  on  gi*oss 
earnings,  but  which  is  now  to  be  raised  in  a  method  which 
is  beyond  constitutional  objection.  The  requirements  of  this 
law  are  too  plain  to  be  misunderstood  and  we  can  not  pre- 
sume that  there  will  be  any  failure  to  execute  it. 

'Now,  it  is  for  you  to  procure  the  General  Assembly  to  ap- 
propriate this  tax  on  franchises  (in  lieu  of  the  proposed  tax 
on  gross  earnings)  to  the  public  schools.  The  watchfulness 
of  those  interested  in  public  education  will  thus  be  a  check 
upon  the  influences  which  by  every  device  and  subtlety  will 
endeavor  to  repeal  or  evade  this  tax. 

Declamation  is  cheap.  Words  butter  no  parsnips.  If 
this  people  is  to  become  an  educated  people  it  must  be  done 
by  levying  an  adequate  tax  which  shall  raise  a  school  fund 
sufficient  for  the  purpose.  Your  assembly  having  started 
the  public  sentiment  which  is  now  so  overwhelmingly  in 
favor  of  public  schools,  you  must  now  find  the  means — you 
must  indicate  the  source  from  which  can  be  most  justly  and 
easily  raised  by  taxation  a  sum  sufficient  to  educate  all  the 
children  of  this  State.  If  you  mean  to  build  up  a  really 
efficient  school  system  and  not  merely  declaim  about  it;  if, 
in  short,  you  mean  business,  you  can  not  rest  till  an  all 
powerful  public  sentiment  shall  be  aroused  which  shall  send 
to  Ealeigh  a  Legislature  to  vote  the  money,  without  which  an 
adequate  school  system  is  impossible. 
2 


00  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

The  suggestion  that  the  already  vmderpaid  public  school 
teachers  shall  each  contribute  two  months',  or  one  month's, 
additional  instruction  without  charge  is  unjust  and  unprece- 
dented. They  have  no  greater  interest  than  others  in  public 
instruction  and  have  already  done  far  more  for  it  by  work- 
ing at  inadequate  wages.  Suppose  the  suggestion  were  made 
equitable  and  democratic,  that  all  others  should  contribute 
two  months'  work  to  the  schools,  that  farmers,  merchants, 
doctors,  preachers,  lawyers,  office-holders  and  great  corpora- 
tions should  contribute  each  their  earnings  for  two  months' 
work !  If  the  teachers  are  to  be  called  on  let  all  others  con- 
tribute in  the  same  proportion. 

Instruction  in  history  can  of  course  be  had  in  the  Uni- 
versity, in  Trinity  College,  Wake  Forest,  Davidson,  Elon, 
Whitsett,  Oak  Eidge,  Guilford  College,  and  many  another 
whose  equipment  would  do  honor  to  larger  and  wealthier 
States.  The  shortage  is  not  there,  but  with  those  less  fortun- 
ate whose  opportunities  in  life  are  to  be  found  in  the  public 
schools  alone. 

You  must  first  catch  your  rabbit — you  must  first  get  suffi- 
cient school  terms  and  school  houses  and  school  teachers 
whereby  something  more  than  the  "three  R's"  can  be  taught 
— then  we  reach  the  secondary  stage — how  to  encourage  the 
study  of  the  history  of  North  Carolina. 

The  first  consideration  when  you  have  the  schools  and  the 
leisure  to  teach  history  is,  you  must  make  it  interesting  to 
the  pupils.  Articles,  brief  and  striking,  should  be  written 
upon  the  most  salient  points  of  our  history — cameos  of  his- 
tory, so  to  speak.  Something  in  that  line  has  been  done  by 
Mr.  Creecy  and  Mr.  W.  C.  Allen  and  some  others.  Such 
gems  well  set  will  attract  the  boy  or  girl  when  grave  com- 
pilations like  those  of  Dr.  Hawks,  Colonel  Wheeler  and 
others  will  repel. 

Then,  if  possible,  the  eye  should  be  appealed  to  by  paint- 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED?  89 

ings  and  engravings.  In  every  Massachusetts  school  book, 
in  every  Massachusetts  library  and  public  building,  you  will 
find  engravings  of  the  notable  events  in  her  history  and  of 
the  great  men  who  have  led  her  people  on  all  great  occa- 
sions. 

There  you  will  find  placed  before  the  eye  of  childhood  the 
representation  of  the  landing  from  the  Mayflower  upon  that 
rock  bound  coast  in  the  depth  of  winter,  the  flight  of  the 
British  from  Lexington,  the  death  of  Warren,  the  scenes  in 
her  Indian  wars,  the  pictures  of  Adams,  of  Hancock,  and 
Webster.  What  Massachusetts  child  ever  forgets  the  native 
land  which  produced  such  men  or  the  spots  where  such  events 
occurred  ? 

They  have  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  in  1520.  What 
ISforth  Carolina  school  room  or  public  building  impresses 
upon  the  mind  of  childhood  that  other  scene  thirty-six  years 
earlier,  when  the  first  English  settlement  on  this  continent 
was  made  upon  our  own  shores  at  Roanoke  Island  ?  Not 
amid  the  snows  on  a  barren  coast,  as  at  Plymouth  Rock,  but 
in  the  middle  of  a  semi-tropical  summer,  with  the  great  cy- 
presses, hung  with  moss,  as  sentinels  of  the  historic  scene, 
and  the  odors  of  Araby  the  blest  wafted  to  the  sea-worn 
wanderers  from  the  shores  of  this  new  land  of  hope  and  of 
plenty. 

In  Massachusetts'  books  every  striking  scene  in  King  Phil- 
lip's war  and  in  the  Pequot  war  is  not  only  recorded  by  the 
pens  of  facile  writers,  but  the  painter's  brush  and  the  en- 
graver's tool  have  faithfully  preserved  the  features  of  each 
locality  and  imagination  has  restored  the  features,  the  arms 
and  the  dress  of  the  actors  in  each  stirring  scene. 

What  pen  or  pencil  or  engraving  or  brush  brings  to  the 
plastic  mind  of  our  children  the  scenes  of  our  own  Indian 
wars  ?  There  is  that  expedition  by  Governor  Lane  up  the 
Roanoke  in  search  of  the  gold  supposed  to  lie  at  its  source. 


90  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

Between  Hamilton  and  Williamston  he  was  suddenly  as- 
sailed by  flights  of  arrows  and  driven  back.  Had  that  hap- 
pened on  the  headwaters  of  the  Connecticut  what  vivid  re- 
productions we  should  have  both  by  pen  and  engraving. 
From  above  Hamilton  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  the  aspect 
of  the  Eoanoke  flowing  through  an  almost  unbroken  forest 
is  nearly  the  same  today  as  it  was  on  the  day  of  the  defeat 
of  that  hardy  expedition.  The  writer  or  painter  who  wishes 
to  portray  that  scene  has  today  but  to  visit  some  stretches  of 
the  lordly  river  as  it  flows  amid  eternal  silence  and  through 
unbroken  forests  to  its  mouth.  He  has  but  to  draw  true  to 
nature.  There  are  the  great  trees,  and  the  same  solemn 
silence  unbroken  save  by  the  rippling  of  the  river,  the  deer 
on  the  banks,  the  startled  water  fowl,  the  wild  flowers,  the 
same  riotous  magnificence  of  primeval  nature.  Let  him 
evoke  from  history  and  imagination  the  picture  of  the  gi'eat 
canoes  filled  with  Englishmen  slowly  toiling  up  the  stream, 
their  habits  as  they  wore,  their  arms,  their  standards,  the 
savages  half  concealed  on  shore,  the  sudden  flight  of  arrows. 
This  and  more,  faithfully  written  or  sketched  on  the  spot 
and  reproduced  by  printing  press  and  the  engraving  stone, 
would  give  the  children  of  North  Carolina  an  interest  in 
that  event  in  the  history  of  their  State  and  a  conception  of 
the  conditions  then  existing  here  which  they  have  never  had. 

Then  there  are  the  terrible  scenes  of  massacre  of  our  own 
great  Indian  war  of  1711,  the  march  of  the  South  Carolina 
troops  hundreds  of  miles  through  the  trackless  forest  to  our 
aid  and  the  storm  and  sack  of  the  Indian  fort  at  ISTahucke  in 
1Y13,  which  finally  broke  the  Indian  power.  Could  our 
children  ever  forget  such  scenes  or  fail  to  feel  an  interest  in 
them  if  presented  to  their  minds  by  a  graphic  pen  or  appro- 
priate engraving? 

In  Northern  school  books,  so  largely  used  among  us,  are 
stirring  narratives  of  the  expedition  to  Louisburg  and  to 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED  ?  91 

Canada,  but  where  is  the  book  which  contains  a  reference, 
much  less  a  picturesque  description  or  engraving,  of  the  ear- 
lier expedition  of  1740  to  South  America,  or  the  capture  of 
Havana  in  1762,  in  both  of  which  North  Carolina  had  a 
share  ? 

Massachusetts  books  and  Massachusetts  school  rooms  bear 
many  an  engraving  of  the  stirring  times  when  Patriots,  dis- 
guised as  Indians,  threw  the  tea  into  Boston  harbor  in  1773. 
But  where  are  the  engravers  or  the  writers  who  have  im? 
pressed  upon  the  minds  of  our  children  that  scene  when  the 
brave  men  under  Waddell  and  Ashe,  unmasked  and  bravely 
in  broad  daylight  in  a  few  miles  of  this  spot,  in  1765,  eight 
years  before  the  Boston  tea  party,  forbade  Great  Britain  to 
put  her  stamp  act  into  execution  in  this  Province  or  even  to 
land  her  stamps  ? 

In  painting  and  in  bronze  Massachusetts  has  preserved  the 
memory  of  the  Attucks  riot  in  Boston  on  the  eve  of  the  Revo- 
lution. On  Boston  Common  the  great  memorial  stands.  But 
where  is  our  statuary,  or  our  painting,  or  our  engraving  of 
the  battle  of  Alamance  in  1771  ? 

They  have  Paul  Revere's  midnight  ride  to  fame.  Why 
leave  unsung  that  other  ride  from  Charlotte  to  Philadelphia  ? 

Where,  indeed  is  our  painting  of  that  gTand  scene  for 
which  Massachusetts  has  no  parallel — the  meeting  which  is- 
sued the  immortal  declaration  of  independence  at  Mecklen- 
burg on  the  20th  of  May,  1775  ? 

They  have  immortalized  by  pen  and  pencil  the  defeat  of 
the  Americans  at  Bunker  Hill.  Where  and  how  have  we 
placed  before  admiring  eyes  the  first  victory  for  the  Ameri- 
can arms,  which  was  achieved  at  Moore's  Creek  in  February, 
1776,  that  striking  scene  when  the  planks  of  the  bridge  be- 
ing taken  up,  brave  men  crossed  on  the  stringers  amid  the 
fires  of  battle,  as  the  Moslems  tell  us  souls  pass  to  paradise 
over  Al  Sirat's  arch,  spanning  by  a  single  hair  the  flames 
of  hell  ? 


92  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

Pencil  and  brush  and  pen  love  to  linger  on  the  grand 
scene  when,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  the  thirteen  colonies 
declared  that  they  ought  to  be  and  were  sovereign  and  inde- 
pendent. But  has  anyone  ever  seen  a  similar  picture  of  that 
meeting  of  the  Provincial  Congress  at  Halifax  on  the  12th 
of  April,  1776,  when  the  first  resolution  was  passed  by  any 
State  instructing  that  other  Congress  at  Philadelphia  to  do 
what  was  done  nearly  three  months  later  ?  Had  we  im- 
pressed that  by  story,  by  statue  or  by  stipple  plate  upon  the 
minds  of  our  own  people  would  a  scholar  like  Senator  Lodge 
have  forgotten  it  or  ignored  it  in  his  study  of  those  times  ? 

Brave  men  lived  before  Agamemnon,  and  brave  men  and 
great  men  have  lived,  at  least  they  did  live  in  those  times, 
south  of  the  Virginia  line,  but  what  have  we  done  to  per- 
petuate their  memories  ?  In  nearly  every  home  in  Massa- 
chusetts hangs  a  portrait  of  John  Hancock,  or  one  of  the 
Adams;  where  is  our  Cornelius  Harnett  or  Richard  Cas- 
well ?  They  have  Warren,  dying  in  defeat  at  Bunker  Hill. 
Where  is  our  engraving  of  Nash,  falling  on  the  field  of  Ger- 
mantown  ? 

Like  a  silhouette  the  heroic  figure  of  Hardy  Murfree,  lead- 
ing his  forlorn  hope  of  North  Carolinians  to  the  capture  of 
Stony  Point  on  the  Hudson,  stands  out  against  the  sky  line 
of  all  history.  But  who  has  preserved  the  names  of  those 
brave  followers ;  what  engraving  presents  their  immortal  ac- 
tion to  our  children ;  what  graphic  pen  has  made  this  scene 
a  living  one  to  our  people  ?  What  North  Carolinian  can 
claim  that  he  is  descended  from  those  stormy  petrels  of  vic- 
tory, who  piloted  Anthony  Wayne  to  eternal  fame  on  the 
summit  of  that  ridge  ? 

What  has  been  said  or  sung  or  engraved  as  to  the  North 
Carolina  line,  steady  as  the  Old  Guard  of  Napoleon  itself,  at 
Germantown,  at  Monmouth,  at  Eutaw  Springs,  and  on  many 
other  fields? 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED  ?  93 

What  school  room  in  North  Carolina  has  an  engraving  of 
that  event,  unprecedented  in  history,  when  the  volunteers  of 
a  day,  springing,  like  the  clansmen  of  Roderick  Dhu,  from 
our  mountain  sides,  self-organized,  without  muster  rolls, 
without  impulse  other  than  the  defense  of  their  little  homes, 
moved  down  like  an  avalanche  upon  the  foe  led  by  one  of 
the  enemy's  best  officers  and  bursting  over  the  fiery  crest  of 
King's  Mountain  broke  forever  Cornwallis'  hopes  of  suc- 
cess ? 

And  at  a  later  date,  where  are  our  engravings  of  other 
patriotic  sons  of  North  Carolina  who  would  have  been  an 
honor  to  any  people  ? 

It  was  Themistocles  who  declared  that  the  trophies  of  Mil- 
tiades  would  not  allow  him  to  sleep.  The  Israelites,  when 
they  had  passed  over  Jordan  built  twelve  pillars  that  their 
children's  children  might  ask,  "What  mean  these  stones  ?" 
that  posterity  being  told  the  story  of  Israel's  greatness  in 
war  and  the  unity  of  the  twelve  ti'ibes  might  bear  it  in  re- 
membrance for  all  ages.  Where  are  our  trophies,  the  proud 
memorials  of  the  great  deeds  of  our  ancestors,  whose  aspect 
shall  stir  the  hearts  of  aspiring  youth  to  emulate  them  and 
to  repeat  our  Marathons  on  future  fields  ?  The  tall  shaft 
on  Bunker  Hill  still  rises  to  greet  the  sun  in  his  coming,  and 
on  its  summit  the  genius  of  Webster's  grand  oration  will 
linger  as  a  halo  forevermore.  On  every  heroic  spot  in  all 
that  land  shaft,  or  sculpture,  or  inscribed  tablet,  records  that 
there  man  has  died  for  man.     But  what  of  us  ? 

Of  recent  years,  we  have  made  a  small  beginning.  A 
crumbling  monument  to  Governor  Caswell,  blasted  by  fire, 
stands  in  the  streets  of  Kinston ;  a  monument  in  the  Capitol 
square,  facing  the  setting  sun,  recalls  the  already  fading  tra- 
dition of  the  125,000  soldiers  who  belted  North  Carolina 
like  a  living  wall  in  the  grand  days  of  18  61-' 5 ;  a  bronze 
statue  of  our  great  tribune  of  the  people  stands  on  the  same 


94  THE  NOKTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

square,  appropriately  facing  the  East,  for,  ever  hopeful  of 
the  progress  and  j)rosperity  of  the  people  he  loved  so  well 
and  served  so  faithfully,  he  ever  stood  praying  and  hoping 
for  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day. 

You  are  arousing  this^  people  as  they  have  never  been 
aroused  before  to  the  needs  of  education.  You  propose  to 
educate  them  to  the  last  boy  and  girl. 

You  propose  to  give  them  the  increased  capacity  for  learn- 
ing, for  enjoyment,  for  usefulness,  which  comes  from  educa- 
tion. But  what  then  ?  Shall  you  lay  before  them  histories 
wherein  Massachusetts,  with  some  aid  from  one  or  two  great 
Virginians,  conquered  the  British  lion — books  which  repre- 
sent no  North  Carolina  historical  event,  and  the  features  of 
no  great  North  Carolinian,  in  which  our  revolutionary  his- 
tory is  a  desert,  with,  perhaps  a  mild  reference  to  the  militia 
at  Guilford  Court  House,  and  in  which  our  ante-revolution- 
ary stone  is  a  mere  table  of  names  ?  Can  you  excite  an  in- 
terest in  the  study  of  North  Carolina's  history  by  such  books 
as  those  ?  Can  you  inspire  any  young  Themistocles  to  emu- 
late the  deeds  of  Miltiades  when  the  story  of  those  deeds  is 
left  untold  ? 

I  will  not  touch  upon  the  ground  of  the  misrepresentations 
of  the  events  of  1861-'5.  Public  attention  has  l3een  drawn 
to  that  and  probably  a  true  storj^  of  those  eventful  years  will 
be  laid  before  our  children.  But  will  it  be  interesting  ?' 
Shall  you  give  them  the  bare  facts  and  a  barren  list  of 
names  ?  Where  can  better  subjects  be  found  for  painter,  for 
sculptor,  for  graphic  writing? 

Take  among  so  many  a  single  incident.  At  New  Bern 
the  battle*  had  gone  sore  against  us.  Four  hundred  soldiers 
are  cut  off,  with  a  pursuing  enemy  in  the  rear  and  an  un- 
fordable  stream  in  front,  the  men  in  despair  throwing  their 
arms  into  the  water  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  getting  them. 
A  single  canoe  is  found  carrying  only  eighteen  men,  there 

*14  Mar.,  1862. 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED?  95 

is  danger  of  its  being  swamped  in  the  mad  rush,  two  young 
officers,*  both  fresh  from  college,  neither  yet  21  years  of  age, 
instead  of  saving  themselves  and  pushing  off  to  safety,  take 
their  stand  and  count  off  from  time  to  time  eighteen  men 
who  pass  beneath  their  crossed  sabres,  till  boat  load  after 
boat  load  is  ferried  across.  With  immediate  peril  of  Yankee 
bullets  and  Yankee  prison,  they  resolutely  keep  their  guard 
till  every  man  is  over  and  those  two,  the  last  to  enter,  float 
across  to  friends  and  to  freedom.  What  a  picture  for  a 
painter,  for  poet,  for  instructor !  How  it  would  have  been 
emblazoned  if  told  in  Roman  story  by  Livy,  or  by  Macaulay 
to  match  his  stirring  lines  which  tell 

"How  well  Horatius  did  keep  the  bridge 
In  the  brave  days  of  old." 

But  what  audience  in  North  Carolina  this  day  can  name 
these  two  beardless  boys  who  came  of  the  race  of  heroes  ? 

And  this  incident  is  but  one  of  hundreds  showing  that  this 
people  of  iSTorth  Carolina  is  one  which  produces  heroes  and 
men  fit  to  command.  If  we  do  not  sufficiently  honor  them 
it  is  possibly  because  such  deeds  are  not  rare  among  us. 

What  pen  or  pencil  can  portray  to  the  life  the  heroism 
of  the  men  whom  Tyler  Bennett,  Frank  Parker  and  George 
B.  Anderson  were  proud  to  stand  beside  in  that  "Bloody 
Lane"  at  Sharpsburg;  of  the  men  under  Pettigrew,  Low- 
rance  and  Lane,  who  fell  farthest  in  the  front  of  the  South- 
ern line  at  Gettysburg;  the  men,  many  of  them  fresh  from 
the  plow  and  without  a  thought  of  heroism  or  fame,  who, 
like  an  averaging  flame,  swept  down  the  broken  lines  at  the 
Salient,  retaking  and  holding  it  against  fearful  odds;  and 
of  those  North  Carolinians  in  the  Seven  Days'  Fight  Around 
Richmond  who  left  more  than  twice  as  many  of  their  dead 
and  wounded  upon  the  field  as  Virginia  herself  or  any  other 
Southern  State ;  the  heroism  of  those  brave  men,  from  our 

*W.  A.  Graham  and  H.  K.  Burgwyn,  at  that  time  respectively,  Capt.  Co.  K,  2  N.  C. 
Cavalry,  and  Lieut.-Col.  26  N.  C.  Reg't. 


96  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

mountains  to  the  sea,  who,  with  no  other  motive  than  their 

duty,  were  first  at  Bethel  and  last  at  Appomattox,  and  who 

at  all  times  during  those  four  long  eventful  years  proved 

themselves  the  peers  of  any  troops  that  came  against  them  or 

that  fought  by  their  side  ? ' 

If  you  wish  to  encourage  the  study  of  the  history  of  our 

State,  can  you  do  better  than  to  tell  the  deeds  of  such  men, 

plainly  and  simply,  as  befits  the  men  who  did  them  ?     Can 

the  story  be  more  needed ;  can  the  teaching  come  better  than 

in  these  days,  when  worship  of  the  dollar  is  growing  and 

when  youths  are  taught  that  the  greatest  among  men  is  not 

he  who  sheds  his  life's  blood  for  his  fellow  men  at  the  call  of 

his  country  and  duty,  but  rather  he  who  gathers,  by  whatever 

device,  the  greatest  quantity  of  the  product  of  the  labor  of 

others  into  his  own  keeping? 

"Ill  fares  the  land  to  hastening  ills  a  prey 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay." 

The  State  has  a  great  history.  Its  people  have  shown 
themselves  equal  to  every  call  upon  them  and  equal  to  every 
occasion.  But  that  history  has  not  yet  been  presented  as  it 
should  be.  To  excite  interest  in  its  study  we  must  make  it 
interesting.  Tell  it  as  it  happened,  its  grand  deeds,  its  he- 
roic sufferings,  its  unvaunting  performance  of  duty  in  the 
face  of  every  danger,  its  uncomplaining  endurance  of  every 
hardship.  Paint  its  striking  historical  incidents  by  brush  as 
well  as  by  pen ;  engrave  them,  hang  them  on  the  walls  of 
your  school  rooms,  your  libraries  and  your  public  buildings, 
put  them  in  your  school  books.  Painter  and  historian  have 
recorded  for  the  admiration  of  future  ages  that  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  when  wounded  at  Zutphen,  refused  a  cup  of  water 
for  which  he  was  perishing  till  a  wounded  private  soldier 
who  needed  it  more  than  he  could  be  supplied.  But  that  in- 
cident, and  even  greater  self-denial,  can  be  related  of  many 


HOW  CAN  INTEREST  BE  AROUSED?  97 

an  unlettered  North  Carolina  soldier  who  had  never  heard 
of  Sir  Philip  or  of  Zutphen,  but  in  whose  veins  ran  the  blood 
of  heroes  and  whose  courage  is  an  inheritance  from  cen- 
turies of  brave  ancestors  of  the  purest  Anglo-Saxon  stock 
on  the  continent. 

To  sum  up,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  North  Carolina  has  a 
history  that  is  worth  the  telling  and  which,  when  truly  told, 
will  interest.  It  is  a  brave  story  of  a  people  who  from  the 
first  founding  of  the  colony  would  brook  no  tyranny  and  who 
"intended  from  the  first  that  no  one  should  govern  them  but 
themselves ;  the  story  of  a  brave,  self-relying,  liberty  loving 
people. 

Then  tell  the  story  in  an  interesting  manner.  Let  the 
pens  of  your  best  writers  record  it  in  their  most  entertaining 
manner,  but  plainly  and  simply  as  accords  with  the  charac- 
ter of  our  people,  whose  unpretentious  nature  is  summed  up 
in  their  proud  motto:  "Esse  Qucmi  Videri,"  for  in  very 
truth  no.  people  can  better  say  in  the  words  of  the  great 
Dictator  to  Sir  Peter  Lely,  "Paint  me  as  I  am."  Like  a 
beautiful  woman,  their  story,  when  unadorned,  is  adorned 
the  most. 

Then,  with  an  interesting  history  interestingly  told,  what 
more  is  needed  ?  You  need  a  wider  audience.  Educate  the 
masses.  Create  in  them  an  intelligent  interest  in  their  sur- 
roundings and  in  their  history.  Make  it  attractive  by  short 
stories  attractively  told.  Appeal  to  the  eye  by  paintings  and 
engravings.  Let  the  State  add,  when  it  can,  sculpture  and 
statuary. 

This  Rome,  Greece,  England,  France  have  done.  This 
the  States  north  of  us  have  done,  preeminently  the  great  edu- 
cational State  of  Massachusetts.  The  means  by  which  other 
States  and  countries  have  created  an  interest  in  their  history 
are  the  means  to  which  we  must  resort  for  the  like  purpose. 


98  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  BOOKLET. 

And  none  of  them  have  a  better  foundation  upon  which  to 

build. 

In  the  language  of  the  poet-priest  of  the  South: 

"Give  me  the  land  that  is  blessed  by  the  dust, 
And  bright  with  the  deeds  of  the  down-trodden  just. 
Yes,  give  me  the  land  where  the  battle's  red  blast 
Has  flashed  to  the  future  the  fame  of  the  past; 
Yes,  give  me  the  land  that  hath  legends  and  lays 
That  tell  of  the  memories  of  long  vanished  days; 
Yes,  give  me  the  land  that  hath  story  and  song! 
Enshrine  the  strife  of  the  right  with  the  wrong! 
Yes,  give  me  the  land  with  a  grave  in  each  spot. 
And  names  in  the  graves  that  shall  not  be  forgot." 


GENERAL  JAMES  HOGIJN.  105 


CAREER    OF   GENERAL    JAMES    HOGUN,   ONE 

OF  NORTH  CAROLINA'S  REVOLU= 

TIONARY  OFFICERS. 


BY  CHIEF  JUSTICE  WALTER  CLARK. 


i^orth  Carolina  in  the  Revolution  furnished  ten  regiments 
to  the  regular  service — the  Continental  line.  Five  of  the 
Colonels  of  these  became  general  officers,  the  only  Generals 
Xorth  Carolina  had  in  the  regular  service.  They  w^ere  Gen- 
eral Robert  Howe,  who  rose  to  be  Major-General — our  sole 
Major-General — and  four  Brigadiers — General  James 
Moore,  who  died  early  in  the  war ;  General  Francis  Nash, 
killed  at  Germantown  and  buried  near  the  field  of  battle — 
a  brother  of  Governor  Abner  Nash ;  General  Jethro  Sum- 
ner, and  General  James  Hogun. 

The  lives  and  careers  of  the  first  three  named  are  well 
known.  For  some  reason  the  data  as  to  the  last  two  have 
been  neglected.  The  Hon,  Kemp  P.  Battle,  by  diligent 
search  in  many  quarters,  was  able  to  restore  to  us  much  in- 
formation as  to  General  Jethro  Sumner,  of  Warren  County, 
and,  indeed,  to  rehabilitate  his  memory.  As  to  General 
James  Hogun,  of  Halifax  County,  the  task  was  more  diffi- 
cult. Little  has  been  known  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was 
probably  from  Halifax  County,  and  that  he  was  a  Brigadier- 
General.  The  late  Colonel  William  L.  Saunders  requested 
the  writer  to  investigate  and  preserve  to  posterity  whatever 
could  now  be  rediscovered  as  to  this  brave  officer. 

It  may  be  noted  that  North  Carolina  has  not  named  a 
county,  or  township,  or  village,  in  honor  of  either  of  the 
four  generals — Howe,  Moore,  Sumner,  or  Hogun.  Moore 
County  was  named  in  honor  of  Judge  Alfred  Moore,  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.     General  Nash  was  the  only 


106  THE   NORTH    CAROLINA   BOOKLET. 

one  of  the  five  thus  honored,  the  county  of  Nash  having  been 
formed  in  1777,  the  year  of  General  Trash's  death  at  Ger- 
mantown. 

General  James  Hogun  was  born  in  Ireland,  but  the  year 
and  place  of  his  birth  are  unknown.  The  name  is  spelt 
Hogun,  though  usually  in  Ireland,  where  the  name  is  not 
uncommon,  it  is  vo-itten  Hogan — ^with  an  a.  He  removed 
to  Halifax  County,  in  this  State,  and  to  the  Scotland  Neck 
section  of  it.  He  married,  October  3,  1751,  Miss  Ruth  Nor- 
fleet,  of  the  well  known  family  of  that  name.  In  the  Pro- 
vincial Congress,  which  met  at  Halifax,  April  4,  1776,  and 
which  framed  our  first  State  Constitution,  James  Hogun 
was  one  of  the  delegates  for  Halifax  County.  He  was  ap- 
pointed Paymaster  in  the  Third  Regiment  (Sumner's),  but 
on  26  November,  1776,  he  was  elected  Colonel  of  the 
Seventh  North  Carolina  Regiment,  and  6  December  of  that 
year  an  election  was  ordered  to  fill  the  vacancy  in  Congress 
caused  thereby.  Colonel  Hogun  marched  northward  with 
the  Seventh  and  Colonel  Armstrong  with  the  Eighth,  and 
both  regiments  arrived  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  battles  of 
Brandywine  and  Germantown.  Colonel  Sumner  was  ap- 
pointed to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  of  General 
Francis  Nash.  For  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  promotion 
of  General  Howe  from  Brigadier-General  to  Major-General, 
our  Legislature  recommended  Colonel  Thomas  Clark,  of  the 
First  Regiment;  but  General  Washing-ton  stated  that,  while 
not  undervaluing  Colonel  Clark's  services,  Colonel  Hogun 
by  his  distinguished  gallantry  at  Germantown,  had  earned 
the  promotion,  and  he  was  therefore  elected  and  commis- 
sioned a  Brigadier-General  9  January,  1779,  and  contin- 
ued to  serve  with  the  army  at  the  north.  When  Charleston 
was  threatened,  all  of  the  North  Carolina  line  which  had 
not  previously  gone  south  with  General  Lincoln,  under  Sum- 
ner, was  ordered  to  that  point.     Owing  to  losses,  the  North 


GENERAL  JAMES  HOGUN.  107 

Carolina  regiments  then  North  were  consolidated  into  four, 
and  General  Ilogim  was  placed  in  command.   At  the  head  of 
his  brigade  he  passed  through  Halifax  and  Wilmington  in 
February,  1780,  and  took  part  in  the  memorable  defense  of 
Charleston.     When  General  Lincoln  surrendered  that  city 
on  12  May  1780,  though  he  surrendered  five  thousand  men, 
only   one   thousand    eight   hundred    of   them   were    regular 
troops,  and  the  larger  part  of  these  were  General  Hogun's 
N'orth  Carolina  brigade.     General  Sumner,  our  other  Brig- 
adier, who  had  commanded  that  part  of  the  I^orth  Carolina 
line  which  was  at  Charleston  before  General  Hogun's  ar- 
rival, was  home  on  furlough,  as  were  many  ofiicers  that  had 
lost  employment  by  the  consolidation  of  the  depleted  com- 
panies  and  regiments.     With  that  exception,  ISTorth  Caro- 
lina's entire  force  was  lost  to  her  at  this  critical  time.     The 
surrendered  militia  were   paroled,   but   the  regular  troops, 
headed  by  General  Hogun,  were  conveyed  to  Hadrell's  Point, 
in  rear  of  Sullivan's  Island,  near  Charleston.     There  they 
underwent  the  greatest  privations  of  all  kinds.     They  were 
nearly  starved,  but  even  a  petition  to  fish,  in  order  to  add 
to  their  supply  of  food,  was  refused  by  the  British.     These 
troops  were  also  threatened  with  deportation   to  the  West 
Indies.     General  Hogun  himself  was  offered  leave  to  return 
home  on  parole.     Tempting  as  was  the  offer,  he  felt  that  his 
departure  would  be  unjust  to  his  men,  whose  privations  he 
had   promised   to   share.      He   also   knew   that   his   absence 
would  aid  the  efforts  of  the  British,  who  were  seeking  re- 
cruits among  these  half-starved  prisoners.     He  fell  a  victim 
to  his  sense  of  duty  4  January,  1781,  and  fills  the  unmarked 
grave  of  a  hero.     History  affords  no  more  striking  incident 
of  devotion  to  duty,  and  N"orth  Carolina  should  erect  a  tablet 
to  his  memory,  and  that  of  those  who  perished  there  with  him. 
Of  the  one  thousand  eight  hundred  regulars  who  went  into 
captivity  on  Sullivan's  Island  with  him,  only  seven  hundred 
survived  when  they  were  paroled. 


108  THE    NORTH    CAROLINA   BOOKLET. 

We  do  not  know  General  Hogun's  age,  but  as  he  had  mar- 
ried in  1751  he  was  probably  beyond  middle  life.  In  this 
short  recital  is  found  all  that  careful  research  has  so  far  dis- 
closed of  a  life  whose  outline  proves  it  worthy  of  fuller  com- 
memoration. Could  his '  last  resting  place  be  found,  the 
tablet  might  well  bear  the  Lacedaemonian  inscription,  "Siste 
viator.     Heroa  calcas."* 

General  Hogun  left  only  one  child,  Lemuel  Hogun,  who 
married  Mary  Smith,  of  Halifax  County.  To  Lemuel  Ho- 
gun, March  14,  1786,  Xorth  Carolina  issued  a  grant  for 
twelve  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Davidson  County,  Ten- 
nessee, near  Xashville,  as  "the  heir  of  Brigadier-General 
Hogun."  In  October,  1792,  the  United  States  paid  him 
five  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  being  the  seven 
years'  half  pay  voted  by  Congi'ess  to  the  heirs  of  Brigadier- 
Generals  who  had  died  in  service.  In  1814  Lemuel  Hogun 
died,  and  is  probably  buried  at  the  family  burial  ground. 
General  Hogun  resided  in  Halifax  County,  Xorth  Carolina, 
about  one  mile  from  the  present  village  of  Hobgood.  In 
1818  the  widow  of  Lemuel  Hogun,  with  her  children,  moved 
to  Tuscumbia,  Alabama.  Numerous  descendants  are  to  be 
found  in  that  State,  and  in  Tennessee  and  Mississippi.  In 
the  late  war  General  Hogun's  papers,  which  might  have 
furnished  materials  for  history,  were  seized  by  the  Federal 
troops  and  presumably  destroyed,  though  it  is  barely  possi- 
ble they  may  be  yet  preserved  in  some  Northern  historical 
collection.  It  is  known  that  among  these  papers  was  at  least 
one  letter  from  Washington  to  General  Hogun. 

These  five  heroes — Howe,  Moore,  ISTash,  Sumner,  and 
Hogim — were,  as  has  been  said,  the  only  Generals  from  this 
State  in  the  regular  service. 

We  had  several  Generals  who  commanded  militia,  ordered 
out  on  three  months'  tour  or  on  special  service,  at  sundry 
times,  such  as  General  Griffith  Butherford  and  General  Dav- 


*  "Pause,  traveler.    A  hero's  dust  sleeps  below." 


GENEEAL  JAMES  HOGUN.  109 

idson,  for  whom  those  counties  have  been  named ;  Generals 
Butler  and  Eaton,  and  others.  General  Davidson  had  been 
a  Major  in  the  Continental  line,  but  was  a  Brigadier-General 
of  militia  when  killed,  1  October,  1780,  at  Cowan's  Ford. 
There  were  others,  as  Colonel  Davie,  Major  Joseph  Graham 
(who  commanded  the  brigade  sent  to  Jackson's  aid  against 
the  Creeks  in  1812),  and  several  who  acquired  the  rank  of 
General  after  the  Revolution. 

The  militia  figured  more  prominently  in  that  day  than 
since.  The  important  victories  of  King's  Mountain  and 
Ramsour's  Mills  were  won  solely  by  militia,  and  Cowpens 
and  Moore's  Creek  by  their  aid.  Rutherford  and  Gregory 
commanded  militia  brigades  at  Camden,  as  Butler  and  Eaton 
did  at  Guilford  Court  House,  and  as  General  John  Ashe  did 
at  Brier  Creek. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  name  here  the  Colonels  of  the  ten 
North  Carolina  regiments  of  the  Continental  line : 

First  Regiment,  James  Moore.  On  his  promotion  to 
Brigadier-General,  Francis  Nash.  After  his  promotion, 
Thomas  Clark.  Alfred  Moore,  afterwards  Judge  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  was  one  of  the  Captains. 

Second  Regiment,  Robert  Howe.  After  his  promotion 
to  Major-General,  Alexander  Martin.  He  being  elected 
Governor,  John  Patton  became  Colonel.  In  this  regiment 
Hardy  Murfree,  from  whom  Murfreesboro,  in  North  Caro- 
lina and  Tennessee,  are  named,  rose  from  Captain  to  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel ;  and  Benjamin  Williams,  afterwards  Gov- 
ernor, was  one  of  the  Captains.  David  Vance,  grandfather 
of  Governor  Vance,  was  a  Lieutenant. 

Third  Regiment,  Jethro  Sumner.  After  his  promotion  it 
was  consolidated  with  the  First  Regiment.  In  this  regiment 
Hal  Dixon  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  and  Pinketham  Eaton 
was  Major,  both  distinguished  soldiers;  and  William  Blount, 
afterwards  United  States  Senator,  was  Paymaster. 


110  THE    NORTH    CAROLINA   BOOKLET. 

Fourth  Regiment,  Thomas  Polk.  General  William  David- 
son, killed  at  Cowan's  Ford,  was  Major  of  this  regiment,  and 
William  Williams,  afterwards  prominent,  was  Adjutant. 

Fifth  Regiment,  Edward  Buncombe,  who  died  of  wounds 
received  at  Germantown,  and  for  whom  Buncombe  County  is 
named. 

Sixth  Regiment,  Alexander  Lillington,  afterwards  Gideon 
Lamb.  John  Baptista  Ashe,  of  Halifax,  who  was  elected 
Governor  in  1802  but  died  before  qualifying,  was  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel of  this  regiment. 

Seventh  Regiment,  James  Hogun.  After  his  promotion, 
Robert  Mebane.  In  this  regiment,  Nathaniel  Macon,  after- 
wards Speaker  of  Congress  and  United  States  Senator,  and 
James  Turner,  afterwards  Governor,  served  together  as  pri- 
vates in  the  same  company. 

Eighth  Regiment,  James  Annstrong. 

Ninth  Regiment,  John  P.  Williams.  Of  this  regiment 
William  Polk  was  Major. 

Tenth  Regiment,  Abraham  Shephard. 

The  State  had  in  the  Continental  line  a  battery  of  artil- 
lery commanded  by  John  Kingsbury,  and  three  companies 
of  cavalry,  led,  respectively,  by  Samuel  Ashe,  Martin  Phifer, 
and  Cosmo  de  Medici. 

My  object  in  writing  has  been  to  give  the  few  details 
which,  after  laborious  research,  I  have  been  able  to  exhume 
as  to  General  Hogun,  his  origin,  his  services,  and  his  de- 
scendants. I  trust  others  may  be  able  to  bring  to  light  fur- 
ther information,  so  that  an  adequate  memoir  may  be  pre- 
pared of  so  distinguished  an  officer. 


A  FORGOTTEN  LAW.  Ill 


A  FORGOTTEN  LAW 


BY  CHIEF  JUSTICE  WALTER  CLARK. 


PETIT    TREASON DEATH    BY    BURNING. 

Blackstone  tells  us  (4  Com.,  75  and  203)  that  for  a  serv- 
ant to  kill  his  master,  a  woman  her  husband,  or  an  eccle- 
siastical person  his  superior  was  petit  treason,  and  that  this 
offence  was  punished  more  severely  than  murder,  a  man 
being  drawn  as  well  as  hanged,  and  a  woman  being  drawn 
and  burnt.  It  is  said  that  the  records  of  Iredell  County  show 
that  this  barbarous  punishment  was  inflicted  upon  a  woman 
in  that  county  for  the  murder  of  her  husband.  This  law  has 
since  been  changed  in  England. 

It  has  doubtless  been  forgotten  by  most  that  the  offence 
of  petit  treason  continued  in  this  State  after  the  adoption 
of  our  republican  form  of  government,  as  to  slaves  at  least, 
and  that  the  punishment  usually  inflicted  was  to  be  burnt 
at  the  stake.  ''History,"  said  a  very  wise  man,  "is  philos- 
ophy teaching  by  example."  It  is  well  to  consider  closely 
the  doings  of  our  ancestors.  When  those  acts  were  wise 
and  just,  honest  and  patriotic  they  should  serve  as  examples 
to  excite  our  emulation  and  shame  us  against  departing 
therefrom.  When  the  deeds  of  our  forebears  are  not  such 
as  to  be  cause  of  pride  and  imitation,  we  should  rejoice  that 
we  live  in  happier  times,  in  the  noonday  splendor  of  greater 
enlightenment,  and  measure  the  progress  we  have  made  by 
our  distance  from  the  evil  precedent. 

Your  magazine  has  been  a  depository  of  much  curious 
as  well  as  useful  historical  data,  which  but  for  it  would 
long  since  have  passed  beyond  proof  and  beyond  recall.  I 
therefore  send  you  a  copy  of  one  of  the  few  remaining 
records  of  the  judicial  executions  by  burning  at  the  stake 


112  THE    NORTH    CAROLINA   BOOKLET. 

which  have  taken  place  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  1776. 

The  Act  of  1741,  which  continued  in  force  till  1793, 
provided  that  if  any  negroes  or  other  slaves  (and  there  were 
other  slaves  in  those  days),  should  conspire  to  make  an  in- 
surrection or  to  murder  any  one  they  should  suffer  death. 
It  was  further  provided  that  any  slave  committing  such 
offence  or  any  other  crime  or  misdemeanor  should  be  tried 
by  two  or  more  Justices  of  the  Peace  and  by  four  freeholders 
(who  should  also  be  owners  of  slaves),  "without  the  solem- 
nity of  a  jury;  and  if  the  offender  shall  be  found  guilty 
they  shall  pass  such  judgment  upon  him,  according  to  their 
discretion,  as  the  nature  of  the  crime  or  offence  shall  require, 
and  on  such  judgment  to  award  execution."  It  further 
provided  that  this  commission  should  assess  the  value  of 
any  slave  executed  by  them  and  report  to  the  next  Legis- 
lature, who  should  award  the  owner  of  such  slave  the  com- 
pensation assessed. 

The  following  is  a  verbatim  copy  of  one  of  the  certificates 
made  to  the  Legislature  to  procure  pay  for  a  slave  executed 
under  said  act : 

State  of  No.  Carolina:  Brunswick  County.     March  5th,  1778. 

At  a  Court  held  for  the  tryal  of  a  negro  man  slave  for  the  murder 
of  Henry  Williams,  said  fellow  being  the  property  of  Mrs.  Sarah 
Dupree. 

Justices  of  the  Peace  present.  Freeholders: 

William  Paine  John  Stanton 

John  Bell  James  Ludlow 

Thomas  Sessions  Needham  Gause 

Aaron  Roberts. 
According   to    law   valued    said    negro    James   at    eighty    pounds 
Procklamation  Money. 

The  Court  proceeded  on  said  tryall  and  the  said  fellow  James 
confessed  himself  to  be  One  that  had  a  hand  in  the  murdering  of 
said  Henry  Williams  in  concurrence  with  the  evidence  of  four  other 
mallefactors  that  were  Executed  for  Being  Concerned  in  said  murder 
on  the  18th.  day  of  March  1777. 


A  FORGOTTEN  LAW.  113 

Ordered  that  the  Sheriff  take  the  said  Jimmy  from  hence  to  the 
Place  of  execution  where  he  shall  be  Ujed  to  a  stake  and  Burnt  Alive, 
Given  under  our  hands  this  5th.  day  of  March  1778. 

Justice  of  the  Peace:  Freeholders: 

William  Cause  Aaron  Roberts 

John  Bell  John  Stanton 

Thos.  Sessions  Needham  Cause 

Jas.  X  Ludlow 

his  mark 

State  of  No.  Carolina — Brunswick  County. 

We,  the  undernamed  persons  being  summoned  as  Justices  of  the 
Peace  and  freeholders  of  the  County  aforesaid  to  hold  a  court  for 
the  Tryall  of  a  negro  man  slave  named  James  the  property  of  Mrs. 
Sarah  Dupre  for  the  murder  of  Mr.  Henry  Williams  of  Lockwood 
Polly  do  value  the  said  slave  James  at  the  sum  of  Eighty  pounds 
Procklamation  Money.  Civen  under  our  hands  this  5th.  day  of 
March  1778. 

Justices  of  the  Peace  Freeholders: 

William  Cause  Aaron  Roberts 

John  Bell  John  Stanton 

Thos.  Sessions  Needham  Cause 

his 

Jas.  Ludlow  X 

mark 

The  Journals  of  the  Legislature  show  that  the  assessed 
compensation,  "eighty  pounds  proclamation  money/'  was 
voted  to  'Mrs.  Sarah  Dupree,  the  owner  of  said  slave. 

There  is  a  similar  record  in  Granville  County,  showing 
;hat  on  21  October,  1773,  Robert  Harris,  Jonathan  Kit- 
trell  and  Sherwood  Harris,  Justices;  and  Thomas  Critcher, 
Christopher  Harris,  Samuel  Walker  and  William  Hunt, 
freeholders,  tried  and  convicted  Sanders,  a  negro  slave  of 
Joseph  McDaniel,  for  the  murder  of  William  Bryant,  and 
he  was  sentenced  to  be  burnt  alive  on  the  23d — two  days 
thereafter. 

Doubtless  there  are  records  of  similar  proceeding  in  other 
counties,  if  not  destroyed  in  the  lapse  of  time,  but  these  two 
will  serve  as  a  curious  reminder  of  a  by-gone  age.  After 
1793,  the  slave  charged  with  murder  became  entitled  to  a 


114  THE    ISrOKTII    CAKOLINA   BOOKLET. 

trial  bj  a  jury  of  freeholders,  and  one  of  the  most  splendid 
efforts  of  the  late  Hon.  B.  F.  Moore  was  in  behalf  of  a 
slave  tried  for  murder.  His  brief  in  that  case  and  the 
opinon  of  the  Court,  delivered  by  Judge  Gaston,  will  remain 
enduring  monuments  of  the  claim  of  both  to  abiding  fame. 
The  opinion  and  brief  will  be  found  reported  in  State  v. 
Will  18  I^.  C.  121-172. 

While  the  circumstance  I  have  attempted  to  rescue  from 
oblivion  may  not  seem  to  the  credit  of  the  men  of  that  day, 
it  is  an  historical,  social  and  legal  fact  which  will  serve  to 
"show  the  age,  its  very  form  and  pressure."  It  is  to  the 
credit  of  the  next  generation  that  the  statute  was  repealed 
by  a  more  humane  and  just  one  in  1793,  and  that  the  latter 
act  was  afterwards  illustrated  by  the  learning  and  impartial 
justice  displayed  by  Court  and  counsel  in  State  v.  Will. 

It  is  true  of  the  generations  of  men  as  of  individuals 
that  we  "rise  on  stepping-stones  of  our  dead  selves  to  higher 
things." 


